Blog Post
Legislative Session 2024: What We’re Watching
Legislation
Protecting Florida’s Citizen-Led Amendment Process
Floridians have a constitutional right to directly pass policies that improve our lives and strengthen our communities.
Since 1968, Floridians have had the constitutional right under Article XI, Section 5 to directly amend our state constitution through citizen-led petition initiatives.
These citizen-led amendments have produced major reforms in our state, including:
- Florida Government Sunshine Laws (1976)
- Homestead Valuation Limit (1992)
- Everglades Trust Fund (1996)
- Universal Pre-K (2002)
- Raising Florida’s Minimum Wage (2004 and 2020)
- Fair Districts (2010)
- Water and Land Conservation (2024)
- Medical Marijuana Legalization (2016)
- Florida Voting Rights Restoration for Felons (2018)
Florida’s citizen-led amendment process is already one of the strictest in the nation, requiring nearly one million signatures to get on the ballot, Supreme Court review of ballot language, inclusion of a Fiscal Impact Statement produced by the state, and obtaining 60% support from voters to pass.
Our right to citizen-led amendments was put in place to serve as a check on the power of the legislature, and it enables us to directly pass policies when our elected leaders ignore the will of the people. That’s why, over the past 20 years, the legislature has added more and more red tape, fees, penalties, and other restrictions to make the process harder and harder for the people — and further entrench power in their own hands and the hands of corporate elites.
But every time they make the process harder, Floridians fight back, finding ways to leap over the barriers and demand that our voices be heard.